€1.5m allocation for Castlemills Access Road

FINGAL County Council has allocated €1.5m in funding over the years 2015 and 2016 in its capital allocation plan for the construction of the Castlemills Access Road in Balbriggan.
This will be welcome news to residents of the Moylaragh estate, which has been used to facilitate high levels of traffic, causing great inconvenience to those living there.
The project includes the provision of a new multi-user connection from the Naul Road (R122) at St George’s National School to Moylaragh Road adjacent to Balbriggan Educate Together National School, Balbriggan, with a high-quality transport link parallel to the western boundary of Moylaragh estate.
The new link will provide a high-quality connection between the R122 (Naul Road) to Moylaragh Road, with footpath and cycle tracks on both sides of the link.
There will be a new junction arrangement at the entrance to Hampton Gardens estate with enhanced pedestrian and cycle facilities, enhanced planted boundary treatment between Moylaragh estate and the new link and appropriate boundary treatment to zoned lands to the west of it.
The existing connection road from Moylaragh Road to Barn Hall Rise at Castle Mill Shopping Centre will be retained, as will the connecting road from Moylaragh Road to the Castlemill link road at Balbriggan Educate Together School, and the junction will have toucan crossing facilities.
The existing vehicular connection between Moylaragh Gardens North and Moylaragh Gardens South within the residential estate will be removed but the pedestrian and cycle ways will be retained.
A new link from north-west Balbriggan to the proposed new primary/secondary school campus at Stephenstown will also be provided.
It is anticipated that the project will be put out to public tender later this year with an anticipated construction start date next spring.
The project will take approximately one year to construct. The allocation in the Capital Programme budget for 2015-2016 is dependent on the development levy funding still being available to the council in the coming year.
Deputy Brendan Ryan (Lab) welcomed this allocation of funding, saying: “I was delighted that the Castlemills Access Road has had funding allocated for construction in 2015 and 2016.
“This capital allocation is dependent on development levy funding continuing to be available to the council in the coming years. It is now intended to go to tender for the works as soon as possible, likely before the end of 2014.
“This is great news, particularly for the residents of Moylaragh and the Moylaragh Road who continue to endure busy traffic on residential roads [that were] never meant for such volume.
“I have advocated to council officials and to Department of Transport officials for many years that this road needs to be built.
“I am delighted to see that we are on the cusp of action. This will be a great benefit to the communities of northwest Balbriggan,” said Deputy Ryan.
Cllr Malachy Quinn (SF) said: “It has been a major problem in recent years. The access into Moylaragh really isn’t sufficient.
“I welcome the money being put down to construct this access road. Hopefully, people will then be more inclined to invest in small- to medium-sized enterprises in Moylaragh.
“It will bring more people into Moylaragh. A lot of people don’t tend to go from the town centre towards Moylaragh because it is only one way in and one way out,” he said.